Rental Operations

Zipcar to Launch Bike-Share Service at Universities

Zipcar and Zagster have teamed up to launch Zipbike on college campuses. Photo courtesy of Zipcar.

Zipcar and Zagster, a provider of campus bike sharing, have announced their partnership to launch Zipbike, the first national, sponsored bike-share program for universities.

Zipbike aims to redefine campus mobility by accelerating access to — and adoption of — bike sharing at U.S. colleges and universities.

Zagster, which operates 140 bike-share programs across North America on nearly two dozen college campuses — will manage the Zipbike systems at all participating universities.Zipcar will launch at participating Zipbike campuses if they don't already have Zipcar programs, according to the company.

"We know that today's mobile-first, app-centric students value on-demand access over ownership," said David Piperno, Zipcar’s vice president of finance and strategy. "Zipcar programs on campuses improve the quality of life for students, faculty, and staff alike by making it easy to access a car only when they need one, and our partnership with Zagster will allow us to offer that same access to bikes."

According to a recent Zipcar and University of California, Berkeley study of more than 10,000 university Zipcar members, nearly 60% take public transit once a month. And after joining Zipcar, 81% of university Zipcar members bike the same amount or more, and 86% walk the same amount or more.

Zipbike offers a bike-share system, bundled with Zipcar carsharing, at a fraction of the cost that universities typically pay for such programs, according to the company.

"With this partnership, we've been able to do something that no one else has done — secure a national sponsorship for an entire category of bike sharing," said Timothy Ericson, Zagster’s co-founder and CEO. "The process of securing sponsorship and underwriting is a time-consuming process for universities and can set back the launch of bike-sharing programs. Because we've solved that problem upfront, Zipbike can be deployed seamlessly and quickly. We expect Zipbike to become the leading national collegiate bike-sharing brand, and ultimately become synonymous with the category."

Zipbike will be available later this year to campuses that want to launch or expand shared mobility services. Zipbike includes everything involved in bike sharing — hardware, software, maintenance, rider support, and local promotion, according to the company.

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